Cooking at Well Cottage

I had a really great evening cooking for the honeymooners staying at wonderful Well Cottage last night! http://www.wellcottagecornwall.co.uk/ I took great pride in being able to tell the story of each of the locally produced ingredients on the menu.
They particularly enjoyed the John Dory with hand picked crab which I cooked for their main course and they couldn't believe how fresh the fish was. It reminded me how lucky we are here in South East Cornwall having such great day boat fish landed in Looe literally the day it has been caught. You really can't get fresher than that without catching it yourself! You can see a 'live' summary of the fish being landed in Looe ready for the next market at 6.30 the next morning at http://www.looe-fish-selling.co.uk/

New products

Just added a couple of Crellow's chutney's and relish to our website for the coming season including the 2008 Great Taste Award winning Beetroot relish http://www.crellow.com/ and a Lord of the Isles chutney made with Andy Atkinson's apples from Cornish Orchards http://www.cornishorchards.co.uk/

Iain, how did your dinner go last night? http://www.twochefs.co.uk/ In case you didn't know, our hadn't realized we also offer our rent-a-chef service right here at food4myholiday. Not only can you have all your groceries delivered awaiting your arrival, you can also have one of us or our team of chefs cook for you too!

Channel 4 Time Team in Looe!

For a different view of Looe and Looe Island (or St George's Island) watch Channel 4s Time Team, 5.30pm this Sunday -Tony Robinson and the crew filmed here last June and the resulting programme should be fascinating...
http://www.channel4.com/history/microsites/T/timeteam/

Watch Nick and Iain in action at Well Cottage !

Take 1! You can watch Nick and Iain demonstrate three of the recipes featured on the food4myholiday.com website by following the link from here www.wellcottagecornwall.co.uk
The recipes are:
Pan-seared Looe Bay scallops with creamed leeks and nut brown butter
Roasted rack of Cornish spring lamb with a mustard herb crust and garlic mash potatoes
Steamed Fowey River mussels with Cornish Orchards cider and a hint of curry

Take 2 to follow soon!

Full recipe details are here:
http://www.food4myholiday.com/acatalog/nick_barclays_recipes.html

Young Chefs

The food4 team have just returned from the Taste-South East Cornwall Young Chef of the Year competition http://www.taste-southeastcornwall.com/ sponsored by Caradon District Council and held at Trelaske Hotel near Looe. http://www.trelaskehotel.com/

Today's winner was Sam Parry from Liskeard School although it was a close fought event with Gabriella Lake from Looe School and Tom Sainsbury from Saltash tied joint second. Hat's off to them all and to all those who came along and supported the event. Check out the local newspapers in the next week or two for full details and pictures. This is the second year for the competition I've organised on behalf of TSEC with help from the Taste committee. Many thanks to all including special thanks to compere and fellow judges Richard McGeown from Couch's in Polperro, Carol Trewin from the Western Morning News and Ross Lewin from Trelaske.

Setting up for spring

This a great time of year, anticipating how the year is going to pan out, I talk in terms of new crops, new growers, new producers and new suppliers and well as new holiday cottage partners to deliver to and work with. I'm still buzzing about the micro greens we sampled at Keveral Farm last week! http://www.keveral.org/

Keveral Farm

Tuesday saw me and Iain head up to Keveral Farm just over the hill from where we both live to visit with Sean, the top man at Keveral. We are on a mission to find out how we can work closer together with KF, Buttervilla Farm and Skygrove Organic this year. Both Iain and me (when we had restaurants in Looe) were fans and used their combined produce, even before 15 and Jamie O came onto the scene and discovered their awesome crops. KF (which has been registered as Organic for the past 25 years) is set on 4o acres of downright peaceful and fertile land just above Seaton. Sean takes us on a tour, there's even more than I remember from my last visit and their development of micro greens is particularly fascinating, and incredibly tasty too with Sean plucking numerous varieties for us to try as we go! These guys are really into experimental growing, in fact Sean tells us he's just send some of in the post to Heston Blumenthal! More later

Day one

Today we enter a brand new phase in building our brand, our business and our connections by beginning our blog. Its a whole new world we are about to explore, join us as we begin this particular adventure, right here on the food4myholiday blog, enjoy!